Chapter 327: 172. The Preparations for the Future -2 (Part One)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
**
I summoned the Bone Wyvern and climbed up on its back. Alice climbed up on the creature as well and assumed a somewhat amateurish position behind me.
“Allen?”
I looked behind and spotted Seran and the twins.
She was still sniffling away, but tried to speak to me while dabbing her tears away with a handkerchief. “I’m sorry. I was too rash. Please forget what I said last night.”
Embarrassment seemed to have overcome her rather belatedly, as her face was beet-red and her words came out in stuttering pauses.
Last night, she told me all about the Frost Giant. Earlier this morning, the twins took her verbal explanation and turned it into both the Visual and Auditory Hallucinations.
That helped us identify the rough time frame of the giants’ future attack.
The Jötnar would begin their march in five years’ time. That was also the moment of the Frants Kingdom’s destruction.
The sudden attack was led by the Frost Giant. That humongous creature mercilessly slaughtered the innocent citizens and destroyed the city.
Despite knowing this, Seran had told me this last night: {Please do not interfere.}
She belatedly said some things that contradicted her earlier plea to save her family.
{I’m sorry… I asked you to do something impossible. No matter what, you must never interfere with the future itself. The Foresight is a communication from the gods themselves. Going against their will only invites the absolute worst disaster, instead. That’s why our job is simply to prepare for what will happen in the future.}
I figured that Seran wanted to accept the Foresight as it was. She said that it was the will of the gods, indicating that she’d accept the fate of her family dying.
She even said that going against their will and potentially creating a different outcome would set in motion the worst possible scenario, something that could never be undone.
However, I couldn’t help but wonder after listening to her. Was that what the gods really wanted in the first place?
I interpreted this whole thing the other way around. We now knew what might happen, so we simply had to prevent that from happening.
However, one thing she said still bugged me. That bit about things ‘getting even worse’.
If that was the case…
“It means, we gotta let things play out in a similar fashion to the potential future events. Man, what a bother…”
Also, I figured that it shouldn’t really matter regarding what happened before or after her vision of the future. Weeeell, Seran didn’t get to witness what exactly happened before or after the events her [Foresight] chose to show her, after all.
“What are you talking about?” Seran asked in a puzzled voice.
I looked back at her and shook my head with a subtle grin. “Nah, it’s nothing. In any case, I got it. I’ll engrave your advice into my heart. I swear.”
“…Thanks,” she replied, even as more tears formed around the edges of her eyes. Her hands rose up to shield her face as she started sobbing again.
The twins quickly embraced her and started crying alongside her, as well.
Their mental shock must’ve been great.
Then again… Hans told me some things about the Frants Royal Family earlier. As people blessed/cursed with unusual and unique power sets, their mental states weren’t what you’d call stable.
In the case of Seran, she was often given a vision of horrifying future events, so it would have been hard for her to keep herself sane. Her pillar of support all this time had been her family. So for her to learn about their demise…
I sighed softly under my breath, then addressed the twins, “Brothers, please climb aboard as well.”
“Why us?” The twins looked at me.
“We need you two if we are to successfully persuade the ambassadors from other nations. Your abilities will be a great help during training, as well.”
Without a doubt, I needed both Marvel and Marcel. Right now our job was to warn all the current monarchs of this continent about the oncoming Ragnarok, and also to prepare for the end of the world, too. As such, the twins’ abilities were absolutely crucial in persuading them.
They climbed up on the Bone Wyvern.
Seran called out to them, “Be careful, you two!”
“Don’t worry too much about us, sister!”
“Yes. Get some much-needed sleep and don’t worry about us!” the twins replied to her energetically.
Now that that was out of the way, the Bone Wyvern flapped its wings powerfully and began flying higher. We rose to quite an altitude in the air, yet Seran could still be seen standing on the same spot. But she soon fell to her knees, as if strength had abandoned her legs.
I could see servants and maids hurriedly supporting her from the side.
“…Dammit.”
“Jötunn or whatever those things are called, we won’t let them off the hook!”
Marvel and Marcel chewed out some expletives under their breath, before shooting a sharp glare in my direction while sticking tightly to Alice’s back.
“Allen, are you really going to pretend that you didn’t see anything?”
“Sister is right about not going against the Foresight. However, those people are our precious family members, you know?! We can’t just let them die like that!”
I groaned at the twins egging me on.
Man, what a pair of persistent tykes they were. Of course I wasn’t planning to sit on my butt and do nothing. “That event will happen in five years. What we’re trying to do right now is to prepare against it.”
Only then did the expressions on the twins soften a tad. “…Thanks.”
Did they finally stop hating my guts now, at least by a little bit?
I shrugged my shoulders. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What about Lord Hans?” Alice asked from behind me.
“He will come home on a carriage after he’s finished constructing the warp magic circle.”
“Warp magic circle, Your Majesty?”
“Yeah. It’s going to connect the Kingdom of Frants to the Theocratic Empire.”
Hans was currently setting up a warp ‘bridge’ that would allow near-instant travel between two nations. However, only a handful of people would be able to utilise it. You needed a crap ton of energy to activate the warp magic circle, after all.
Unless you possessed a Progenitor-level vampire’s energy pool, you might as well forget about it.
“I see,” Alice replied, but then noticed the direction of the Bone Wyvern’s flight and began tilting her head. That was because our current flight path had deviated from the direction that would’ve taken us straight back to the Theocratic Empire. “Your Majesty, aren’t we returning to our home country?”
“Not yet. We have somewhere else we must stop by first.”
Alice’s head tilting intensified, “Where to, sire?”
“Aslan.” There was something I had to do there first before starting anything else. “Hold on tightly, everyone. I’m going to increase our speed.”
The Bone Wyvern accelerated even more.
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
Jeram was living in a slum area.
While all of his fellow feudal lords of Aslan had their heads chopped off for treason, only Jeram was allowed to keep his. The reason for that was fairly simple.
It was because he chose to kneel in submission after witnessing the revival of King Rahamma. Also, he provided the Holy King with information pertaining to the Army of Blood.
In a way, one could say that he managed to barely save himself by betraying all of his fellow feudal lords.
‘That’s right. I only managed to keep my neck, that’s all.’
His demonic energy reserve had been destroyed, turning him into a cripple. Forget about casting magic, he couldn’t rouse even a lick of demonic energy now.
All he could do these days was to squat on some street corner and keep begging the passersby to earn just enough coin to keep his life going for yet another day. That was all.
The pride of having been one of Aslan’s twelve feudal lords was long gone by now. His sin of betraying the queen, acknowledged by King Rahamma, was just too grave. He believed that this was his rightful punishment for being blinded by the false promise of an eternal life.
{We won’t take your life. Please live on. That will prove to be even more painful, after all.}
Those were the last words Queen Tina had said to Jeram.
Recalling them made him break out in a hollow chuckle.
What a black-hearted little queen she was. That’s probably why she got betrayed like that in the first place.
Just as Jeram began shaking his head, a sizeable gold nugget clattered into his empty begging bowl.
“…?!” Jeram jumped up in surprise and hurriedly looked up, only for his expression to crumple immediately. “What brings the new and undisputed true king of Aslan to this humble one’s spot?”
The new ruler of Aslan could only be the Holy King, Allen Olfolse. Sure enough, Allen was standing before him, his figure and face hidden under a thick robe and a hood.
“I was looking for you, actually.” Allen shrugged his shoulders. “Besides, I ain’t no undisputed king or whatnot. I mean, really now. I’ve abandoned this country and wandered around here and there all the freaking time, anyway. Honestly speaking, I’m not qualified to be called a king at all.”
Jeram chuckled and while fidgeting with the gold nugget, replied, “I heard that you achieved a total victory against the vampires. Congratulations.”
“Thanks for the sentiment.”
“I guess that now leaves you with the matter of conquering the rest of the continent, then.” Jeram retorted while looking up at Allen.
The latter sat down in front of the former feudal lord. “World conquest? Why would I do something that is so exhausting and annoying?”
“Because someone like you possesses more than enough strength to become the supreme sovereign that rules the entire continent.”
“I’m already preoccupied with so many things, so I sure don’t have the time for that.”
“…You seem to lack manly ambition, then.” Jeram leaned against the wall behind him and asked again, “Alright, then. Why has the newest king of Aslan decided to grace this beggar with his presence?” He then spread his arms wide and spoke in a snarky manner, “Surely, you haven’t come here to mock this poor one?”
“Let me ask you something. Are you thinking of wasting the rest of your life like this?”
Jeram tilted his head in puzzlement. “I’ve already lost my status as a feudal lord. I betrayed Her Majesty Queen Tina, after all. Honestly speaking, I would’ve lost my head a long time ago if I had insisted on sticking with my fellow feudal lords. The only reason I’m still breathing is due to Her Majesty’s mercy, that’s all.”
“Well, this is a bit too cruel to be called merciful, wouldn’t you say? Your ability to wield demonic energy has been destroyed, turning you into a useless cripple who can only beg like this to eke out a living.”
Jeram furrowed his brow. “Even though I’ve lost my warrior’s pride, to think that you’d behave so tastelessly like this. It seems that a Holy King has a lot of free time to kill these days.”
“Nah, I told you, I’ve got a crap ton of things to do. Way too damn many things need my attention, and that’s why I’m too damn busy. Even now, I gotta dash to somewhere else as soon as I’m done talking to you. As for the reason why I came to find you? It’s pretty simple.” Allen grinned deeply. “Tina will be reassigned to the military.”
“…”
